We have made it! It's been a long road coming, but Here we are at the last chapter!

Let me know what you all think!

Once again, I left it open ended in case, who knows, right? :)

Disclaimer: All I own is the character Ray, the rest does not belong to me!

Anyways, R&R and yay! :)

xoxo

Polkahotness!

NOTE: The last part of this chapter is SO fun to read while listening to "Once there was a Hushpuppy" from the Beasts of the Wild soundtrack :) I listened to it while I wrote this chapter :)

It's hard knowing that soon you won't be with the person you had spent months waiting to be with.

Of course, now that the lines of communication would be more open between Helga and myself, it should be much easier, and within a matter of a few short months, we'll have the whole summer to be with each other and explore our relationship more than we've been able to in just this week.

"Are you ready or what, bum?"

"Bum?" I repeated, a chuckle in my voice.

"Yes. Bum. Here I am, broken arm with chips in my other arm, and you're sitting on the bed staring into space." Ray gave me an eyebrow raise and I rolled my eyes.

"Sure, Ray."

"So are we picking up Gerald or..."

I reached over to pick up the case of Yahoo and shrugged.

"I actually think he and Phoebe are going together."

"And Helga?" her name lighting up my face with a smile.

"Helga, I'm sure, has plans of her own grand entrance."

"Without you? Not much of an entrance." he said as he made his way to the door before carefully starting down the stairs.

"You know," I started while following behind him cautiously, "I think my dad had an accident like you did."

Ray seemed to have forgotten the previous subject and once both of his feet were safely planted on the ground, he turned around and gave me a quizzical look.

"What do you mean?"

"In his journal, he made note of the many times he would fall and hurt himself."

Ray laughed and nodded his head towards the door, gesturing for me to lead the way to Rhonda's.

"So you're comparing me to your dad?"

"I thought it was an interesting little tidbit."

"Riiiiiiight."

I opened the door and standing out front was her.

"Hey there football-head, what's shaking?"

A few familiar cars lined the street, and the music was bleeding out from the large house and into our ears from a block away.

Helga's hand was in her pocket, her other entwined with mine the way that we both liked it most.

It was a good thing Ray was a pretty calm guy, since he had found himself to be the third wheel more than enough times in this past week.

"I'm surprised you showed up. You said you would come by yourself."

Helga smiled and looked up to the starlit sky.

"Well Hair Boy, I figured I might as well come and accompany you or something. After all, you've never quite been the life of the party."

"Oh I beg to differ there." Ray interrupted and Helga glanced between the two of us.

"How's that? You mean Arnold here actually participates in the college frou frou that is drinking games and-"

"No no no, Helga you just stop there. He means that I have A drink and watch Agame of beer pong and that's that."

"Hmm." She hummed, her eyebrows scrunched together in a confusing look of thought. "Yeah... that would be an upgrade for him." She winked in my direction and stopped for a moment once we were outside of Rhonda's house.

"Ready?" I asked, smiling Helga's way.

"Well, I got you for my grand entrance so why not."

"So let's see here," Ray began, tapping his feet on the grass beneath him, a Yahoo in his free hand with his eyes glancing between those sitting around him, the glow of the fire under all their faces.

"Just start. If you screw up, we'll break your other arm." Helga joked, her eyes widening and her familiar sarcastic smile across her face.

"Ha ha, jerk." He retorted before continuing. "Okay, so you're Nadine. Your hair kinda gives you away. Then we got...uh... Peapod kid?"

The group chuckled and I nodded my head.

"You guys are weird." He commented and went on, pointing at the next in the circle. "Sid. The boots. And Stinky, you're tall."

"Garsh, I ain't that tall, Ray."

"You're like six foot. That's considered tall, Stinky." Rhonda added, crossing her arms for a moment. "You guys know I could get in a lot of trouble for this fire thing, right?"

"You're the one who offered, Princess." Helga replied and I nudged her with my foot.

"Don't start anything." I mouthed to her and she just gave me a look before glancing back to the fire as it crackled.

"No more distractions, I'll forget where I'm at..." Ray laughed and Rhonda instantly agreed, shushing everybody to listen intently.

"Well, you know who I am, right Ray?"

"Ramona?" He teased, her smile quickly fading to a frown. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding, Rhonda."

"Well, that's it," Helga whispered to me, leaning over the armrest of her chair, "he just kicked himself out of the Rhonda's new meat club."

I had to stop myself from laughing.

"Then Eugene, who, don't hurt yourself this time by the way, and Sheena his partner in crime. Right?" He asked, them both smiling and nodding, Eugene flashing him a thumbs up.

"You're doing GREAT, Ray! He didn't even need one of our theatre games, Sheena!" He encouraged.

"Hey what about me?" Harold whined.

"Shut up, he's getting to you." Rhonda interjected.

"Harold, of course." Ray quickly answered, Harold dawning a look of 'I told you so' to Helga.

"Where's Brainy?" He asked suddenly, Helga reaching over for another bottle of Yahoo.

"Who knows. Behind a trash can somewhere?"

"Behind a WHAT?" Gerald questioned, his and Phoebe's appearance finally known.

"Hey, Gerald." I grinned, our hands meeting for our childhood thumb wiggle.

"Hello everybody! Sorry we're so late, Gerald had to stop and get gas and-"

"And cheese puffs." he said, proudly.

"Well, I guess my cucumber sandwiches weren't good enough, huh Gerald?" Rhonda seemed insulted.

Gerald just shrugged and sat down on the ground next to the only open chair left that he gestured for Phoebe to take. "I just like my cheese puffs."

"What are we all doing?" Phoebe questioned.

"Ray's trying to remember all of our names before he goes off to Neverland again with Arnoldo."

Gerald shook his head slowly. "Mm mm MM. They got you doing that, hmm?"

Ray shrugged taking a swig of his Yahoo.

"I'm doing pretty well."

"Well my man, by all means, continue." he finished, opening his bag of cheese puffs and stuffing a few in his mouth.

Ray scanned the circle before his eyes set on the last of us.

Lila sat quietly in her chair, her thoughts mostly to herself as she waited patiently.

Without hesitation, he looked at her and nodded his head.

"And Lila."

She blushed slightly, the blush I had spent a good chunk of my school career thinking about. It was funny how it had ceased to mean anything more to me than blood rushing to her cheeks.

I caught Helga's eyes move to watch me for a moment, and I only looked to her before reaching out for her hand, shaking my head.

She instantly relaxed.

Funny how after all these years, she still felt threatened by little old Lila who wouldn't hurt a fly.

"Well, I reckon Ray is one of us now." Stinky observed, nodding his head in approval.

"Like he ever wasn't." Gerald agreed, winking at me.

But Ray didn't seem to notice, his eyes were still preoccupied with Lila who stood up to wander to his side.

"Oh boy..." Helga muttered, leaning back into her chair.

"What do you mean, 'Oh boy?'" I wondered aloud, Phoebe covering her mouth while she giggled to herself.

"What the heck's so funny?" Gerald asked, his eyes shooting to Phoebe who just shook her head.

"Aaaah, you won't get it Geraldo."

"Get what?"

"It really is nothing, Arnold."

"Phoebe, you're a horrible liar." Helga was looking at her and they were both laughing, though nobody but Gerald and I were even noticing it.

The groups chatter had begun to almost mask our conversation.

"For real? Arnold are you getting ANY of this?"

"Look, you dweebs may have not noticed it, but are you seeing what Ray is getting himself into?"

"What's wrong with Lila?" I asked, almost defensively.

"She strung you around like a puppy until MIDDLE school, Arnold. You didn't see that?"

"I don't think a puppy is an appropriate-" I tried but Gerald interrupted me.

"She may have a point, man."

"Gerald!" I near yelled, slightly laughing.

"What!?" his hands shot up in a surrendering pose, cheese powder all over his fingers. "I just call it as I see it."

"Well..." I started, "should we tell him?"

We shared a look, before Helga started shaking her head.

"Nah... we all let you figure it out. Let's REALLY induct him into the group."

"That's evil," Phoebe muttered before Gerald nudged her.

"C'mon, Pheebs. Just a little of fun."

"Well if he is going to get hurt-"

"Who knows," Helga urged, "what if they actually work out?"

Our eyes fell on Ray and Lila for a moment, their smiles to each other seeming genuine.

But who was I to judge that?

The only genuine looks of love I knew were between Grandma and Grandpa, Gerald and Phoebe and Helga's toward me. And I would hope mine to Helga. Because I sure did love her.

It was nice to have that finally out in the open.

And each new look towards her felt more and more in love than the last. I could only hope that one day our love could go to place that we never thought it could go. Maybe Helga had thought, but never me. And now that I was here, I couldn't imagine it any way.

Each sarcastic comment and nickname, each tear she hid from me, each kiss and cuddle was something we shared together; be it the names of our past or those kisses and cuddles I didn't know I wanted until I had felt them.

It wasn't until I had almost lost her because of my foolishness that I realized I can never lose her, despite distance or fights alike.
She was right; she had always been there through it all.

And here we were, in college and making it work like we never thought we could before.

Each day with Helga G. Pataki was one I could now boldly say was spent in love.

I looked around at all of us around the bonfire, old and new, we were like a family from now until years down the road.

And I thought to myself, we didn't start this fire... this fire started years back in P.S 118, Urban Tots, Hillwood High, it all brought us here. It had even brought Ray here now.

And as I looked at Helga, her eyes locked with mine, I knew I would never want it any other way.